Strict Standards: Declaration of pnRender::is_cached() should be compatible with Smarty::is_cached($tpl_file, $cache_id = NULL, $compile_id = NULL) in /home/culturas/culturasdearchivo.org/includes/pnRender.class.php on line 93

Women and the Archive: A Partial Disclosure presents four perspectives
on the relationship between women and the archive in contemporary
artistic production. Artists, collectives and researchers using archives
as source material or constituting archives as their primary activity
are invited to present their rarely shown collections of photographs,
videos and audio recordings around women of artistic, social and
political importance. Issues of provenance, methodology, property and
historicisation will be addressed throughout the afternoon via
presentations, screenings, performances and a panel discussion.

The government is planning to get around a European court ruling that condemned Britain's retention of the DNA profiles of more than 800,000 innocent people by keeping the original samples used to create the database, the Guardian has learned.

A damning ruling last December criticised the "blanket and indiscriminate nature" of the UK's current DNA database - which includes DNA from those never charged with an offence - and said the government had overstepped acceptable limits of storing data for crime detection.

Last month the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, said she would publish a white paper setting out "a more proportionate, fair and commonsense approach", but she has not given any indication whether DNA samples already obtained would be destroyed. However, Home Office sources said the government, which was given three months to respond to the ruling, has "no plans" to destroy samples of DNA.

What qualifies as a meaningful life? How does one distinguish one life’s worth from another? These questions have countless answers, but one particularly academic solution made its case Friday at Low Library: archiving.

Archiving is a practice that explores the uniqueness of an organization or individual, as well as his or her research value. Last Friday, the Archiving Women conference in Low Library brought to light the lives of women in the shadows—women whose existence, past or present, is worth investigation and documentation.

A number of archivists, published writers, and professors spoke at the conference, including several members of Columbia’s English Department: Farah Jasmine Griffin, Brent Edwards, and Marianne Hirsch. The speakers were organized into three panels: “Feminist Practices in the Archive,” “Creating New Archives and Collections,” and “Collecting and Being Collected.” Although each two-hour segment was intended to address the more technical questions regarding archival practices, the speakers could not help but let their personal motives direct the flow of their words.